Sekha wrote:I would be curious to know how he managed to survive. I was told there is another american guy in Myanmar who has spent a decade or so alone in the forest.

Infinitely easier in Myanmar where you have a culture which supports bhikkhus. It would not surprise me if the American gentleman living alone in Myanmar is ordained.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

If I remember properly, he is just an ascetic ("isi" in Burmese) because he doesn't want to be affiliated to a particular monastic sect. He surely benefits from the people's generosity, but it's still the heck of a performance even in warm tropical climate. I wish I were able to do the same.

I was told he has eventually been forced to join a monastery for administrative purposes.

Sekha wrote:I was told he has eventually been forced to join a monastery for administrative purposes.

Yes, I can't imagine the Dept of Immigration looking to kindly on an American overstaying his visa for the better part of ten years.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

being a young city-dweller I don't know too much about camping. How can one stay warm or cook without a fire?

The article stated that he stole propane tanks and cooked with it.

Also, there are sleeping bags rated to -30F. I have slept in such bags at near those temperatures and they do manage to keep you warm. Although, you have to cover your face or your breath will freeze on your face. I suspect during the coldest winter days he probably didn't leave his sleeping bag for very long.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis

being a young city-dweller I don't know too much about camping. How can one stay warm or cook without a fire?

The article stated that he stole propane tanks and cooked with it.

Also, there are sleeping bags rated to -30F. I have slept in such bags at near those temperatures and they do manage to keep you warm. Although, you have to cover your face or your breath will freeze on your face. I suspect during the coldest winter days he probably didn't leave his sleeping bag for very long.

Yes, I have one of those bags but rated to -32C. If you also look at his set up, it looks quite smart how he set up his sleeping area in a tent within a larger tent/or tarp. But I also agree that he probably didn't leave his sleeping bag much during winter.kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725